News
Emerson Hospital child life specialist honored for more than 25 years of service
(CONCORD, Mass., April 23, 2008)--Mallory Harrison, MS, child life specialist at Emerson Hospital, was recently honored for 30 years of service to the child life field by the regional professional organization New England Child Life Professionals (NECLP). Harrison, who was honored at a ceremony at Children’s Hospital Boston at Waltham during NECLP’s third annual Child Life Month event, is an integral part of Emerson’s pediatric intervention team, which is a multidisciplinary group that consists of two child life specialists, a child and adolescent psychiatric nurse, and a consulting child psychiatrist. The services the team provides are based on the emotional and developmental needs of children from infancy to young adulthood. Through careful preparation and continuing support, the team aims to minimize a child's anxiety in the health care environment and promote opportunities for growth and mastery of the hospital experience.
The theme to this year’s NECLP celebration was “Honoring Those Who Lead Us” and paid special tribute to child life professionals around New England who have served the field for more than 25 years. Harrison was one of 12 professionals who were recognized. “Mallory has been part of the Emerson team for close to 30 years and is dedicated to supporting the psychosocial needs of our pediatric patients and their families,” said Kevin Whitney RN, MA, CNAA, vice president of patient care services/chief nursing officer at Emerson Hospital.
“I have had the privilege of working with Mallory for the past 15 years,” said Kay Liebmann, RN, MSN, CCS, nurse coordinator of the pediatric intervention team at Emerson. “She is truly a child life specialist extraordinaire. She provides care to each child with a unique blend of great wisdom shaped by her knowledge and experience together with vivacious enthusiasm and energy. She offers a wonderfully engaging sense of humor and sensitivity that is evidenced not only in the responsiveness of children and their families but also in her creative writing and poetry. Mallory is an asset who has significantly contributed to making pediatrics a service of excellence at Emerson Hospital.”
Acting as a liaison between physicians and nurses and patients, Harrison prepares small patients for medical procedures through therapeutic play while helping them to cope with stressors, such as loss of privacy, intimidating surroundings, and fear of separation. “My experience as a student intern with Mallory as a supervisor could not have been richer,” said Vicki Hopley, who was a master’s candidate and a child life intern in 2007 and who is now a child life specialist on Emerson’s pediatric intervention team. “As a mentor, she characterized through daily teaching and modeling the importance of the role that child life specialists play on the health care team. Observing her establishing therapeutic relationships with children and families with thoughtfulness, sensitivity, humor, and expertise was invaluable. She creates relationships built on mutual respect with children, families, colleagues, and students alike.”
“Mallory is one of the kindest people I have ever met,” said Kelly Wiederhold, office manager in nursing administration at Emerson Hospital. “Her compassion and sincerity compare to no other. Whenever I see her pulling her little red wagon with a small patient, both in scrubs, I know that child is in great hands no matter what procedure he or she has to go through. Mallory will be right the patient’s side with her calm demeanor, her wonderful smile, and genuine concern. I know her goal will be to make that child have the best experience possible. If there ever was a perfect fit between a job and an individual, it’s Mallory working with pediatric patients at Emerson.”
In 30 years, Harrison, who joined the pediatric intervention team five years after its inception, has seen many changes in the approach to child life care. “When I first started working at Emerson, parents did not stay overnight with their children, the pediatric intervention team was not allowed to go into the operating room with a child, surgery required a preoperative overnight stay, tonsillectomies were a three-day event, and the length of stay was days or weeks, not a day or hours,” said Harrison. “So, over the years, our team has been part of a cultural change at Emerson in the way children’s needs are met. What gives me the greatest joy in my work with kids is being able to help terrified or fearful children (and often their parents) enter the hospital world, provide honest information delivered with respect and humor, offer parents and children the vocabulary of their medical experience in words that are clear and aren’t misconstrued, offer children as much choice as we can squeeze out of an event they have no choice about, establish trust with a child and parent and, using that trusting relationship, be that family’s mentor, guide, liaison, processor, and interpreter through the hospital experience.”
Looking back, it is the synergy of the entire team that inspires Harrison. “The role of the child life specialist is fairly unique here at Emerson because it has always been part of a team, a multidisciplinary group of professionals from psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, nursing, and social services,” she said. “The makeup of the team is consistent with its philosophy that views the child holistically, with complex physical and emotional states. I have been fortunate to be part of a team that has allowed me to create my own role as a child life specialist and also to be part of a greater whole than just my little piece of the work with children. Our work is not just the work of one person, but is the result of many people through the years who have kept reminding the hospital by modeling, by teaching, by being with our pediatric patients throughout the hospital, that children’s emotional health is vitally important.”
Emerson's pediatric program includes several components that are unique for a community hospital: 24-hour in-hospital coverage by pediatric hospitalists, community pediatric practices that provide around-the-clock coverage for their patients, a special care nursery for ill newborns, the pediatric intervention team and partnerships with the pediatric services at leading Boston teaching hospitals.